Daily Dothttp://www.dailydot.com/Daily Dot Articleen-usThu, 26 Apr 2012 15:24:25 +0000Facebook hacker tells allhttp://www.dailydot.com/news/facebook-hacker-tell-all/<p><img src='//cdn0.dailydot.com/cache/55/c7/55c7b78c5fbef520879523dec0e95b72.jpg'></p><p>
The English man responsible for stealing Facebook&rsquo;s source code spilled his guts Thursday on what really happened.</p>
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Glenn Mangham, 26, of York, England, did it for the challenge, he said. He works as a white-hat security specialist, hacking sites at their owners&rsquo; behest to determine their vulnerabilities. Mangham said we would have been happy to give Facebook a free report.</p>
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In a blog post, Mangham explained why he hacked Facebook&rsquo;s precious code and how he felt about it.</p>
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&ldquo;I accept full responsibility for what I did, it was my idea and my idea alone to do it and in truth I did not fully think through all the potential ramifications at the time,&rdquo; Mangham wrote on <a href="http://gmangham.blogspot.co.uk/2012/04/facebook-hack-what-really-happened.html">Blogspot</a>. &ldquo;For whatever it is worth I would like to apologise for allowing the situation to escalate into a full blown investigation and for any distress that my actions caused to certain individuals. While I accept that some cost was caused by what I did I would still dispute its quoted magnitude.&rdquo;</p>
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<iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/emzOZH1-v9E" width="420"></iframe></p>
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Mangham hacked Facebook in April and May of last year, which Facebook discovered during a security check. He hadn&rsquo;t used a proxy server to hide his location, but he did delete &ldquo;his electronic footprint to cover his tracks,&rdquo; <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-york-north-yorkshire-17079853">reported </a>the BBC.</p>
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Mangham was jailed on Feb. 17 after pleading guilty to three counts of unauthorised access to computer material and unauthorised modification of computer data, <a href="http://www.yorkpress.co.uk/news/9667505.York_hacker__Only_my_ethics_stood_between_Facebook_and_potential_annihilation/">reported</a> <em>The York Press</em>. Mangham&rsquo;s original sentence was for eight months in prison, but that was cut down significantly thanks to a successful appeal earlier this month.</p>
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Facebook claims that Mangham&rsquo;s hack cost the company $200,000 and &ldquo;prompted a &lsquo;concerted, time-consuming and costly investigation&quot;&rsquo; by the FBI and British law enforcement,&rdquo; reported <a href="http://nakedsecurity.sophos.com/2012/02/20/jail-facebook-ethical-hacker/#IDComment297623115">Naked Security</a>. Mangham calls that figure &ldquo;<a href="http://gmangham.blogspot.co.uk/2012/04/facebook-hack-what-really-happened.html">suspicious</a>.&rdquo;</p>
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Mangham argues that he had no intention of damaging the network or selling its secrets and instead says that he wanted &ldquo;to achieve a better understanding of how the system worked and to leverage that knowledge to find more vulnerabilities.&rdquo;</p>
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&ldquo;I actually have a neutral to mildly positive view of Facebook and have no motivation whatsoever to harm it. &hellip; There was plenty of strong evidence for the many past occasions where I had found and disclosed vulnerabilities and while my paid work for Yahoo! was given the most attention, what you may not know is that I have offered up many of my finds unconditionally, I have even turned down offers of rewards after providing information because it was the challenge and the gratification of conquering it that was important. &nbsp;I would have been quite happy to have passed over the eventual report and to have simply got a &ldquo;thank you&rdquo; and a pat on the back, I was not out touting for business, although I would have given serious consideration to an offer if one was made.&rdquo;</p>
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<em>Photo via YouTube</em></p>
fernando@dailydot.com (Fernando Alfonso III)Thu, 26 Apr 2012 15:24:25 +0000http://www.dailydot.com/news/facebook-hacker-tell-all/NewsFacebook